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Friday, February 21, 2003

To the mind of the simple, unsophisticated Shaker it seemsmarvelously inconsistent for any human government to be administeredfor the sole benefit of its own officers and their particular friendsand favorites; or that more than one half the citizens should bedisfranchised because they happen to be females, and compelled by thesword to obey laws they never sanctioned, and ofttimes in which theyhave no faith, and to submit to taxation where there has been noprevious representation; while still millions of other fellow-citizensare treated as property, because they chance to possess adarker-colored skin than their cruel brethren. And again, that themembers (brethren and sisters) of the same religious body or churchshould be divided into rich and poor in the things of this temporaryworld, but who are vainly expecting that, in the world to come, theyshall be willing to have eternal things in common!

And when this same unjust and unequal administration is confirmedand carried out in the most popular religious organizations ofChristendom, the Shakers think the climax of absurdity, tyranny, andoppression well-nigh attained.